Dell issued an SEC filing late Friday that underscores the challenges it faces. And it also underscores the challenges Intel, Microsoft, and other companies that made their pile in the X86 market face too.

In the lengthy filing, it appears that last September the special committee, set up to consider Dell going private, said: “…as a result of the Company’s second quarter fiscal year 2013 financial performance and macroeconomic changes affecting the Company’s PC business, including projection for decreased revenue relating to the introduction of the Windows 8 operating system, an unexpected slowdown in Windows 7 upgrades, the growth of tablets, which are sold by the Company in limited quantities, and the growth of smartphones, which the Company does not manufacture, as alternatives to the Company’s core inventory of desktop and laptop PCs.”

The lengthy filing must dismay Dell shareholders and, even worse, dismay the Dell corporate workforce. Just how can you go pitch for a big win at a large enterprise, knowing that your customer is aware that the future of your company is on the line.

And the filing must also dismay other players in the PC market – all of which have been forced in recent months to closely examine their own navels and to wonder just how they are all going to dig themselves out of this almighty Microsoft-Intel hole.